Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H08-185936 provides a socket for a printed circuit board having a housing with an insertion port for receiving a printed circuit board formed between a pair of opposing wall portions; a plurality of spring contacts with their respective contact points protruding from at least one wall portion to the interior of the insertion port, and forming a contact row along the longitudinal direction of the insertion port; a pair of latch arms extending from the portions in the vicinity of each end portion in the longitudinal direction of the insertion port of the abovementioned housing, and moving outwardly by being pressed by the side edge portions of this printed circuit board when the printed circuit board is rotated in the direction in which the printed circuit board presses on each of the abovementioned contact points, and returning to their original positions by their elasticity when the printed circuit board has passed, thereby locking the printed circuit board against the driving force of the abovementioned spring contacts; and a holding portion protruding from the other side of the abovementioned wall portion, preventing the rotation past a predetermined angle of a printed circuit board driven by a spring contact when the latch arms release the locking of the printed circuit board, the abovementioned housing and latch arm being formed out of an integrated member made out of insulating material.
This socket for a connector locks a printed circuit board against the driving force of the said spring contacts using latch guides with a latch mechanism provided on support arms extending along the edge portions of both ends in the insertion direction of a printed circuit board. That is, the fixing means in the vertical direction relative to the motherboard is served by the latch guides, and the fixing means in the horizontal direction relative to the motherboard is served by the said support arms. However, for both of the support arms of the connectors, being formed out of an integrated member made of insulating material, according to this patent publication, the longer they are, the weaker they become against twisting in the said parallel direction.
Therefore, the present Applicant provides a board fixing device being a connector having a plurality of spring contacts forming a contact row along the longitudinal direction of the insertion port, having no support arms along the side edges of the printed circuit board, being a structure fixing the end of the said printed circuit board to be inserted into the said connector, and the other end of said printed circuit board extending towards the insertion direction, and having a shape having sufficient strength against swinging and shaking in the vertical and horizontal directions. A concrete structure shall be explained herebelow.